[gothic-l] Book Review III - Why Did the Goths Migrate?

[Bertil Häggman]

_The Role of Migration in the History of the
Eurasian Steppe - Sedentary Civilization vs. -
'Barbarian' and Nomad, (ed. Andrew Bell-Fialkoff),
London: Macmillan, 2000, 355 pp.
______________________________________

There have been many variations to explain
the reason for the Gothic exodus. No doubt
there was no pressure from non-Germanic
groups.

An outright famine due to deteriorating climatic
conditions is presented in this work as the
most likely reason, and I must say I concur.
Heather writes that in his view there was a
limited migration of a few aristocratic clans.
They might the nin turn have organized the
local poulation ind given their name to it.
But the disappearance of incineration burials,
so Bell-Fialkoff, makes it more probable that
all population strata were effected in Goetaland.
The local provenance of the Wielbark culture
may be caused by rapid assimilation of
the Goths (compare Normandy and Rus
in the case of the vikings).

Why did the Goths migrate to the southern coast
of the Baltic? One possible reason presented
by Bell-Fialkoff is that the migrators followed
the traditional Amber Wy, the old trade route
linking southern Scandinavia with the eastern
Mediterranean as early as 1800 BC (see Demougeot,
p. 20, referred to earlier).

As others before him Bell-Fialkoff also point to
the fact that Sweden historically "looked" east and
south, not west (which was the way Norwegians
"looked", for instance). The other side of the Baltic
was the traditional area of interest. The natural
thing, which i so obvious that it is not mentioned
by the editor, is that if you want to go southeast
from Goetaland you end up in the Vistula delta
and the surrounding area. The ethnogenesis occured
eccording to Wolfram between the rivers Oder
and Vistula.

For next part I will round up the review and present
the editors writing on the sea raids of the Goths
and the Eruli in the eastern Mediterranean and the
Black Sea.




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